Al Jazeera America is already on the defensive after being on the air one day. The news channel has filed suit against AT&T for not carrying the network via its U-verse pay-TV service.

The channel has promised viewers that it would be available via AT&T's service. AT&T is claiming that U-verse was not able to agree to terms with Al Jazeera, so it dropped the channel. Al Jazeera has now accused AT&T of breach of contract and will use the suit to "compel AT&T to do the right thing." The suit was filed in Delaware Chancery Court.

"Unfortunately, AT&T's decision to unilaterally delete Al Jazeera America presented us with circumstances that were untenable -- an affiliate that has willfully and knowingly breached its contractual obligations," AJAM said in a statement issued Tuesday night. "Al Jazeera America's strong hope is to resolve this matter quickly."

AT&T U-verse represents 5 million subscribers, but only subscribers that have a certain package that includes extra channels would actually be missing out on the station. AT&T noted that it "could not reach an agreement with the owner (Al Jazeera) that we believed provided value for our customers and our business." AT&T said that it wasn't a last-minute decision, it had notified customers through newspaper ads in July that it may stop carrying the channel.

Al Jazeera is now in 50 million homes in the U.S. after it took over the channel formerly known as Current TV when it paid $500 million to buy it from Al Gore. The only other major pay-TV company that has not made a deal with Al Jazeera is Time Warner Cable, which represents about 12 million subscribers.

Gina Hall is a Los Angeles-based writer and producer with more than 10 years experience in television, documentary and feature film production. She is a graduate of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and blogs for the Huffington Post at huffingtonpost.com/gina-hall

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